Leaving New Orleans

I'm sitting in a hotel in Birmingham, AL for Andy Penuel's wedding tomorrow night and am reflecting (and uploading pictures) of the past couple days.  I drove to Charlotte Tuesday night and stayed with Joy for the night.  She was gracious enough to drive me to the airport EARLY Wednesday morning to catch a flight to New Orleans.  I was heading to New Orleans (along with mom, dad and Denise & Tom Akulis) to help Matt & Carly move to NC.  When everyone finally got there Wednesday night, we spent the next couple of days moving furniture and boxes into a huge Penske truck.  We were easily distracted by Grey, who is tiny and precious.  He had a tough couple of days because his tummy hurt, but all of us thoroughly enjoyed being around him.  Carly & Matt were excited to get packed up and moved out of their townhouse in New Orleans and we successfully finished everything up this morning.  Matt & Carly went to closing (yay!) and the rest of us stayed back to finalize everything.  I will miss our tie to NOLA but will love having Matt, Carly & Grey only a few hours away in Chapel Hill.  I didn't get many pictures OTHER than Grey so enjoy.....I'll post on Andy's wedding when I get back to NC/SC.

Summer Sundays

David and I have started a little Sunday tradition (okay, so maybe its not a tradition just yet, but give us time).....We've been heading down to the beach house in Myrtle to hang by the pool, soak up the summer sun, walk on the beach, etc.  Jen, Curry, Liza, &  Margaret joined us today....as did Soo Soo, Lee & Janet.  Its nice to have a place we can all meet and hang out.....Liza continues to entertain us and Margaret is cute as can be.  My favorite line of the whole day was when I was lying in the pool on a float and Liza asked me (in 2-year old form), "Is that your bra and panties?" We all got a big kick out of that and love the lack of  inhibitions of a toddler.  We tried to teach her how to say "bikini" and it came out "Beccakini".  She is also really good at pointing out when you happen to have a beer.....she makes a point to say that Beer is for Big People and then points out who all the big people are that can have beer.  Really a cute kid!  As for Margaret....she just laid on Jen's legs and made faces, ate, slept, and just got cuter and cuter.  Anyways, its kind of laid back - do your own thing - Sunday but that is why we love it!  Its so nice having family close by!

Hopefully these Sundays will continue!  

Margaret Alexandra Martin

Margaret Alexandra Martin was born at 12:21pm on 7/23/09.  She weighed in at 8lbs 8oz. and was 20 inches long.  She has a THICK head of black hair and is precious.  Jennifer is doing great and they are coming home today!  We went to the hospital (now that they live in MB) to visit and see Margaret and I was amazed at how great Jen looked!  Liza was thrilled to have a "real baby" and wanted to see her in the nursery.  She'll have plenty of time to play with Baby Margaret now! Here are a couple pics!

Harrison Grey Raynor

Matt & Carly welcomed their baby boy into the world on Thursday, July 9, 2009 at 4:39 cst. Harrison Grey Raynor was 5lb 7oz and 19.75 inches long. He is a little thing but is so precious in pictures. I cannot wait to meet him in person and will get to do that in a couple weeks! "Grey" as he will be known, is going to be a loved little nugget! The Matt Raynor clan is moving to Chapel Hill in August and their new home is close to being completely built. It is so exciting to know that they will be SO close (comparitively speaking) and I can watch Grey grow up and watch Matt & Carly be wonderful parents. These are my new favorite pictures......


In this picture, he's already taking after Shelton...trying to bend his ears forward to hear better. Hopefully he'll have better hearing than his Grandfather currently does.


Cheesin'!!!

The Happenings.....

I've been out of touch for a while and it seems like I can't catch up with life! I guess I'll start by announcing the birth of BABY BOY RAYNOR today at 4:39pm Central Time. Matt & Carly have a new son and I could not be more excited! I don't think they have 100% decided on a name but there are a couple in the works. He weighed in at a whopping 5 lbs 7 oz and 19.75 inches long. Carly delivered a week early because the baby wasn't growing like the docs wanted it to. As far as I know, baby and mom are doing well. I can't wait to meet the lil man!

I'm currently sitting in a really nice townhouse in Orlando, FL. I just got here today with 3 of the girls from the gym and will be here until Tuesday. They are working out at a college recruiting camp and I brought them here so I, too, could learn what the ropes are for getting a scholarship or competing college gymnastics these days. So far, everyone is having fun but the first workout is tomorrow, so we'll see!

The link below is pictures from July 4th.....Mom & Dad came to town and we (me & david, mom & dad) went down to the Dunes Club to hang with the Magenbauers, Martins, Woodards and Soo Soo. We decorated golf carts for the neighborhood golf cart parade and went to an amazing cook out hosted by The Dunes Club. We saw some of the greatest fireworks I've ever seen and I was so upset that my camera battery died right at sunset. : ( We had a great time nonetheless and we are grateful to have family so close to us now.

This week (prior to Orlando) and the remainder of next week, I'm busy with gymnastics camp at our gym. Its so much fun to have so many kids in town for it and especially to have so many of my coaching friends in town. We all really get along great and are able to learn so much from each other in the gym. I'll be glad to rest after it is over with and I'm sure david will be glad to see me for more than 20 minutes a night.

David is heading to Oklahoma on Saturday to meet with a consultant. He and his dad are flying out there and going to soak up all the information they can.

Summer is flying by and I will do my best to keep the blog updated on more activities going on with The Fort's. Life's a Beach!


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